Restaurant Review - Infusion Tea, 1600 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, FL

Located in College Park, south of Princeton Street on Edgewater Drive, is Infusion Tea. Infusion Tea is a modern teahouse as well as an organic/vegetarian cafe. I visited with my boys and one of my girlfriends. Yes, this was another attempt by me to take my kids to tea -- I can't help it that I had boys instead of girls!

Infusion Tea is part retail tea store, with all kinds of tea accouterments such as tea pots, stirrers, infusers, and cups, as well as modern cafe. The chairs and tables are interspersed throughout the room so you can look at the wares as well as wait for your food. There is also a comfy couch area towards the back.

If you love tea, there is a lot to enjoy at Infusion Tea. They have an extensive tea menu including black, oolong, green, white, flavored, herbal, and rooibos (African red bush) teas, most of them organic. All can be ordered in the cafe or can be purchased to be made at home. The cafe menu features soups, tea sandwiches, wraps, appetizers and dips, salads, as well as a kids' menu and seasonal specials. You order your teas and food at the counter and then your meal will be delivered to your table when it is done.

The kids' menu offers three meal items, an apple and cheese quesadilla in a light wheat tortilla ($4), organic fruit and cheese kabobs with yogurt dipping sauce ($3.50), and a half peanut butter and jelly sandwich with veggies chips ($3.50). My younger son asked for the PB&J while my older son ordered the fruit and cheese kabobs. I was stumped for what to get them to drink because my boys don't like hot drinks. My oldest wanted sweet iced tea and the server immediately said she could make that for him with a light green tea, sweetened with simple syrup over ice. She offered apple juice for LB but he decided he just wanted water.

Another mother with her young son walked in at this point and I asked her what her son usually drinks here. She said he likes the Izze brand sparkling juices that Infusion Tea carries (so it is kind of like a fruit soda). She also told me he is a picky eater and his favorite thing on the menu is the veggie burger wrap ($7.50). So that is another option for a child, although kind of pricey unless you know your child will eat the whole thing.

I ordered the lunch combo ($7.50), a choice of a half soup and half sandwich - you can also chose a half salad as well. I chose the gazpacho, a cold tomato-based soup, and the Sundried Special, a sandwich with sundried tomato spread, cream cheese, cucumbers, and organic spinach. My friend ordered the Concorde wrap ($7.50) which consisted of hummus, tabouleh (a parsley-based Middle Eastern salad), and field greens in a wheat wrap and a scone for dessert ($2). We ordered a pot ($6) of the Cape Town Rooibos tea to share.

The drinks came out right away. I was very pleased with the presentation of the tea. It was served in a clear glass pot and two huge glass tea cups. On the side were the sweeteners -- honey, raw sugar cubes, and sugar. After the timer went off, we took out the filter with the tea leaves and put it on the provided plate and then poured the tea. It was a wonderful rusty red color and had a deep, comforting, slightly sweet flavor.

Our food arrived and it all looked very appetizing. The half peanut butter and jelly sandwich was on lightly toasted white bread and came with vegetable chips that looked like real vegetables that had just been sliced, cooked and lightly salted. I was surprised that my four-year-old, who I can never get to eat his veggies, dug right into the chips and finished them all -- all except one green bean that looked a little too much like a green bean to him. The fruit and cheese kabobs were strawberries and red grapes alternated with large squares of cheddar cheese and came with a sweet honey yogurt sauce. My oldest ate all of the fruit, dipping them in the sauce and did a good job with the cheese but said there was just too much cheese to eat.

My gazpacho was unusually prepared. Gazpacho is typically a soup made with tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, and garlic and can be smooth, with the veggies all pureed, or "chunky" with diced vegetables in the soup. Infusion Tea's version is all chunky with no soup, just very finely chopped vegetables spooned into a large cup. It was very fresh and I appreciated the unique presentation. The sandwich was tangy and creamy at the same time and was very filling. My friend's wrap was a wonderful blend of Middle Eastern flavors. The warmed scone was served with strawberry jam and Devon cream and the scone itself was full of pieces of juicy dried fruits. It was so good that I ordered one as well. Wow, it was a very decadent pastry and extremely filling - I was not able to finish it. I will definitely return to Infusion Tea to try some of the other teas and sandwiches... and I'll attempt to save room for another scone.

Restaurant Review - Trish's Teas, 4844 New Broad Street, Baldwin Park, Orlando, FL

Yes, it's true! I took my two boys (and my mother-in-law, Grandma M) to a high tea! Hey, I can't help it if I didn't have girls! I have been craving a true tea experience and have not had time to make it over to my favorite tea place - the Grand Floridian Resort's Garden View Tea Room. So, I decided to check out a place I read about in the Windermere Lifestyle magazine -- Trish's Teas, a tea, trinket & treasure boutique in Baldwin Park Village.

We found Trish's easy enough and walked in to check it out. It is certainly a combined tea room/retail space/party room. When you walk in, there are about 5-6 small tables, all with different "Victorian" chairs and candelabras. They are to the side of the main retail space where all sorts of "tea things" are sold. There is also an ordering counter to the right where you can get a "cuppa" or some of the yummy looking chocolates and desserts. In a separate room to the left is the party room -- and there was a party going on when we arrived. It looked to be a little girl's birthday party with all the little girls dressed up and wearing big fancy hats. Later, after they left, a baby shower group showed up... so the secret must be out on having parties at Trish's Teas! As we stepped up to the ordering counter, we asked to see the menu. The young man asked if we had reservations. Whoops, we didn't, was there any space available? I looked around and saw two groups at the tables but the rest of the tables did have "Reserved" signs on them. A woman next to him said that they did have space and removed one of the signs and escorted us to a glass table. Little Boy (LB), my two-year-old ended up needing a booster seat to reach the top of the table. He then proceeded to bang all of his silverware against the glass tabletop. Shoot, why couldn't we have gotten one of the wooden tables? By distracting him with all the teapots surrounding us, we were able to secretly take away all of his silverware without further incident. Trish's has a very simple menu, with light selections such as quiche, salads, snack plates, and desserts, as well as tea combinations and tea by the pot. Grandma M decided to go with the spinach quiche and salad for $10.95. I decided to go for broke and get the full tea for $19.95 which comes with a full pot of tea (I choose Jasmine), two scones with lemon curd & clotted cream, finger sandwiches, fruit, and a sampling of small desserts. For the boys, I got them each the Teddy Bear Children's Tea (the only offering for kids) for $8.95. It said it came with a beverage, small sandwich, cookie, gummies, and Goldfish crackers. Big Boy (BB), my seven-year-old said he wanted to try the kids' tea called Bubblegum Tea. I got a chocolate milk for LB. For sandwiches, they had a choice of peanut butter & jelly, fluffernutter (marshmallow fluff & peanut butter), or one of the salads they offer - tuna or chicken. LB went for the PB&J and BB said he wanted the tuna salad.

I'm assuming Trish's is a family-run business, with just the family running it, so service was a little slow. I'm sure that's fine when you are relaxing with tea with your girlfriends, but was a little too slow for the boys. I finally took them over to the dessert case and told them they could each get a small chocolate for dessert if they ate their lunch so they perused their options. Finally, our food arrived and I really wished I had a camera! The Teddy Bear Tea presentation was adorable!! It was served on a three-tiered plate with a balloon tied to the handle at the top. On the top tier was a small teddy bear that the boys got to keep as well as the fruit gummies. On the next tier was a small chocolate chip cookie and a dish of rainbow-colored Goldfish. On the lowest tier was the sandwich, served on a round piece of bread with the crust cut off. Too cute! The boys actually got excited about it. Also, both of their beverages were served in little teapots. I poured LB's chocolate milk into his tea cup and hoped that he wouldn't break the cup. Well, he didn't break the cup... he broke the little top to his tea pot. He had picked it up to see the milk inside and accidentally dropped it - it shattered to the floor. I was horrified. However, the folks at Trish's were really nice and cleaned it up and told me not to worry about it. Whew, I thought I had just bought a little teapot. BB tried his Bubblegum Tea and declared that it was just okay and tasted kind of like grape. Looking at the ingredients now from Trish's website http://www.trishsteas.com/, I can see why it tasted fruity - it is made of hibiscus petals, rosehips chips, calendula petals, cornflower petals, dried apples pieces, and dried sweet orange peel. Grandma M said that her quiche and salad were very good. My full tea was also served on a three-tiered plate, with six finger sandwiches - two each of egg salad, cranberry chicken salad, and cucumber with dill - two blueberry scones with lemon curd and Devonshire cream, a cup of cut-up pineapple, strawberries and blueberries, and a mini-carrot cake, mini-German chocolate cake, fruit petit four, and mini-chocolate layer cake. Wow, a lot of food! BB did great and finished everything except his Goldfish. I had to keep begging LB to eat his sandwich as he was perfectly happy just eating the Goldfish and the gummies. My sandwiches were very good, with my favorite being the cranberry chicken salad. The scones were nice and soft and tasted great with the curd and cream. Surprisingly, my least favorite things were the carrot cake and German chocolate cake. They just didn't taste right. But the fruit was wonderful as well, very sweet. Since BB had finished his meal, he picked out a chocolate for himself ($1.25) and of course LB started to throw a fit. Luckily, we were now past the main lunch hour so we were the only remaining guests in the place. I was a bad mommy and gave in to the tantrum and let LB have a chocolate as well - the same exact one of course. BB acted like a proper gentleman the whole time so I am considering taking him next time I go for tea again. LB was just a little too little and I'll have to wait until he is older. But, Trish's Teas is a nice place to have tea and some food and I'm really considering maybe having MY birthday party there one day.